Bulletin No.10/2012

August 10, 2012

Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture

Hyderabad

Status of monsoon and contingency plans for deficit/excess areas of the country

During the last three days monsoon was quite active in South Karnataka, North Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, East Rajasthan and other states in the eastern part of the country.   Good rainfall occurred in the Malnad region of Karnataka and Malabar region of Kerala, Western Madhya Pradesh and East Rajasthan.  On 9th August several districts in Haryana and Western Rajasthan have also received rains adequate for sowing of the rainfed crops.  Scattered rains have also occurred in North Gujarat and Punjab lowering the temperatures and reducing the water demand.  However, Saurashtra and Kutch region largely remained dry.  

Karnataka

From 1^st June to 8^th August 2012, state as a whole received 362 mm rainfall against the normal of 535 mm with a deficit of -32%. North Karnataka has largely remained dry except scattered rainfall at few locations.  Nearly 60% of the area has been covered in this zone.

• In this zone as soon as adequate sowing rains are received, the following contingent crops are suggested.

       Desi cotton (Herbacium) as sole or intercropping with onion + chilli, maize,

       sunflower (Seed hardening – soaking in calcium chloride solution for 6 hrs

       before sowing, wider row spacing 120-135 cm), horsegram, moth bean, tobacco

       or cowpea.

• Till 15th August, fodder maize, cowpea and horsegram can be sown in light soils mostly for fodder purpose to cope with the shortage of green fodder in the region.  
• Interculture, mulching and weeding in standing crops to conserve moisture
• Making of compartmental bunds in vertisols which are currently under fallow, so that adequate moisture is conserved for the rabi crops. 

Many places of South interior Karnataka particularly Malnad region received good rainfall during the last three days bringing the deficit from -42 to -33%.  The major finger millet growing districts like Hassan, Bangalore rural, Haveri have received good rains.  However, Chamrajnagar, Mandya, Tumkur and Gadag still remain under deficit.  In this region, the sowing of finger millet is in progress wherever good rainfall has received. The recommendations are:

• Immediate sowing of short duration finger millet varieties (Indaf-5, Indaf-9, GPU-28 ad GPU-48).
• Maize (Deccan 103) and fodder maize (South African) and sunflower (Morden, BSH-1) are recommended in all the traditional groundnut growing areas.
• In tank fed areas, aerobic rice cultivars (MAS-946-1, Rasi and KRH-2) may be sown whenever the tanks are completely full and medium duration redgram varieties (BRG-2) can be cultivated for vegetable purpose till 15^th August.

Maharashtra

The Maharashtra state as a whole received 588 mm of rainfall from 01^st June to 09^th August which is 84% of the normal rainfall. With good rainfall in the last week in the entire state, the sowing operations have been completed in most of the districts.  

Vidharbha:  Timely rainfall and adequate follow-up rains in this region do not warrant any contingency plan.

Madhya Maharashtra:  This region have received good rainfall in the last one week.  The following recommendations are made in different crops/regions:

·         In medium deep to deep black soils of Solapur region, sowing of sole crops like sunflower (Bhanu, Phule, Raviraj), castor, horsegram, pearl millet (shradha, Saburi, Shanti) can be sown with the recent rainfall of sufficient quantity are received.

·         If less than 45 days old seedling of pigeonpea are available, farmers are advised to transplant pigeonpea as a sole crop or as intercrop with sunflower + pigeonpea (2:1) or mixed crop of castor + ridge gourd.

·         To meet the fodder shortage farmers are advised to sow giant bajra or sorghum (Phule ruchira, Phule amrutha) in light soils.

·         In shallow black/red soils of Sangli region pearl millet (Shanti, Shradha, Saburi) and in deep black soils either sole crop of sunflower (Bhanu, SS-56) or sunflower + pigeonpea (Vipula or BDN-708) in 2:1 ratio are suggested.

·         In Kolhapur region in medium deep black soils sowing of fodder maize (African tall, Panchganga, Gangasafed-2, Vijay, Local) are recommend.

Marathwada:  In this region, the initial rainfall was quite good and sowing operations have been completed in most districts.  However, during last week there was no rainfall and the crops are under mild to moderate stress.  Only moisture conservation practices like mulching, interculture and weeding are recommended to conserve the available moisture.  In the unsown areas, sowing of sole crops like pigeonpea, hybrid bajra, sunflower, castor and seseme and intercrops viz., castor + pigeonpea, castor + coriander etc., can be taken up once the rainfall revives.

Rajasthan:  The entire State received scattered rainfall in the last few days which helped in revival of crops in the eastern part and giving opportunity for sowing of rainfed crops in the Western Rajasthan.  In Eastern part ridging is recommended in standing maize crops along with weeding and interculture to conserve the available moisture.  Wherever adequate rainfall has been received top dressing of N fertilizer may be done now.  In Western Rajasthan, short duration varieties of bajra (HHB-67) upto 15th August and mothbean and fodder bajra thereafter are recommended in view of the sowing rains received on 9th August. 

Gujarat:  In north Gujarat scattered rainfall has occurred providing relief to the standing crops of cotton, pearl millet and pulses.  In this region, only castorbean is now recommended in the unsown areas when the rainfall revives.  In the Saurashtra and Kutch the rainfall situation is not satisfactory.  Groundnut and pearl millet cannot be sown now and in their place castor (GAUCH-1, GCH-4 and GCH-7) and fodder sorghum (GFS-4, S-1049 and Gundari) may be taken up 15^th August. 

·         In standing crops weeding and interculturing operations are recommended to save moisture.

Haryana:  Parts of Haryana have received scattered rainfall on 9th.  However, most of the other districts still remain dry.  The following recommendations are made in the current situation:

·         With the recent rainfall sowing of pearl millet (HHB-67, HHB-216 and 226) may be completed immediately.

·         Sowing of moong bean (Satya, Asha and Muskan) may be completed with 20% higher seed rate.

·         In the standing cotton crop, farmers are advised to do intercultural operations, furrow irrigation followed by straw mulching for conserving soil moisture.

·         Keep the paddy fields wet instead of flooded and in sugarcane life saving irrigation with drip / furrow is advised.

Punjab: 

In Punjab rainfall during the season so far is deficit by 68% as on 9th August.

·         Under rainfed conditions, sowing of fodder, pearl millet varieties (PHBF-1, PCB-164 and FBC-16) can be taken up to August end.

·         Under irrigated conditions, maize variety J-1006 can be sown up to middle of September.

·         To save irrigation water in standing rice and basmati rice crops, irrigation can be advised two days after complete evaporation of ponded water.

·         In cotton crop, spraying of potassium nitrate under water deficient conditions starting at flower initiation stage is advised.

Kerala:  The Malabar region of North Kerala received copious rainfall providing relief to the plantation crops.  However, the southern region still remain deficit and in these regions moisture conservation practices like basin mulching are recommended in plantation crops and water saving practices in paddy. 

Other States

The rainfall situation in other states is comparatively normal. However, some districts recorded deficit rainfall and for those districts contingency plans are made available in the websites of the Ministry of Agriculture (www.agricoop.nic.in), ICAR (www.icar.org.in) and CRIDA (www.crida.in). The respective KVKs also may be contacted for needful advice.  For general farm operations to be taken up during this period, the regular agro-advisories issued by all the Agricultural Universities in their websites and other channels may be followed.

Availability of quality seeds

The latest information on the seed availability is give in the following table

AVAILABILITY OF SEEDS WITH DIFFERENT INSTITUTES OF VARIOUS 

STATES (IN  KG) AS ON 07-08-2012